A critical review of local and world news. This blog originally commented on the Moncton Times and Transcript but has enlarged its scope.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

August 18: A normal day in our world.

Well, in up-to-the-second news for the irving press, section A has the story that a man accused of break-in will stand trial. Wow! who woulda guessed? There's a big story on an apartmeent development on Main St. It was a big story yesterday, too. There's photo of a man smiling as he holds up a big cheque for charity. In large print on the cheque and on a big sign on the wall, it says President's Choice. (That's not a charity donation. That's a free ad something like the Chamber of Commerce dinner for philanthropist irving.) Then there's a big story about an irving reporter learning how to dance.

The editorial is an important one if you think blueberry sales are a big issue of the day. Rod Allen tells yet another pointless story about his lovable self.
The only column worth reading is one on investing in social programmes. "Human beings are like rivers: helped best from 'upstream'.

Canada&World has only one story from outside Canada. It's about Trump.
Expect the irving press to get worse. Newspapers all over the world are in decline, with many lay-offs and closings. We may be coming to the end of the age of the newspaper. That's probably why the irving press has been looking as though it is running on the super-cheap.

There must be great wailings among the irvings. On one hand, they need the irving press to keep people ignorant of what's going on in this province. On the other hand, they're addicted to making profits. I'm surprised they haven't thought of their usual remedy for this sort of problem - demand a government grant to keep us uninformed.
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I never thought I would have to do this, but this story about Syria in The Guardian is an example of pretty questionable journalism. It may be that The Guardian is suffering from the financial crunch, too, and losing a bit of its independence.

In this story a young boy is carried out of a bombed out building, wounded and in a state of shock. So what do his rescuers do? They put him under bright lights in a chair obviously chosen for a set-up video oppportunity.

If you were carrying a boy who was wounded and in a state of shock, is that the first thing you would do with him?

The story is full of hints this was the result of bombings by those evil Syrians. Quite likely it was. But what do people think happens to little boys who are hit by American, British, French, Saudi, (and Canadian) bombs?

And in case you missed all the hints, there a story at the bottom about a Syrian prison which is "the most terrible in the world". Now, there are a lot of quite terrible prisons in this world - not a few of them American. And Saudi. I doubt whether anyone knows which are the most terrible. So why link this to a story about a boy wounded in a bombing?

It links evil with Syria.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/18/boy-in-the-ambulance-image-emerges-syrian-child-aleppo-rubble
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I'm not sure I agree with this next one. If true, it's the ultimate sign of the collapse of the presidency and of democracy in the U.S.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/17/michael-moore-donald-trump-does-not-want-to-be-president
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I'm not sure what to make of this story, either, about Educator opening a school to politicize the military. But its statement that the U.S. operates a similar school for the U.S. military is certainly true - and goes back thirty years or more. At the American school, the army is taught how to overthrow elected governments, assassinate 'trouble makers", set up up pro-U.S. underground groups, and other dirty tricks. It is, or war, mostly aimed at South America.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/18/ice-scientists-arctic-ice-disappearing-reduce-emissions-p
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This one is an old story that the North American press has never told.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45299.htm
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The following article should cause surprise only to North American journalists. The U.S. has been creating Jihadist groups for over 40 years - going back to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. They have proved useful in fighting U.S. wars, notably against Russia and now, Syria. And it's a secret only to the North American press that the U.S. (and the Saudis) have been supplying Jihadists with money, training, and weapons.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45298.htm
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I have always been distrustful of Huffington Post. Some of its writers are good. Many more are just propagandists and ideologues. (I knew some.) This article seems to share my reactions to Huffington Post. Lately, It's been big on Hillary. This item explains why.

It also portrays Trump as having some more intelligent ideas than Clinton has. That's quite possibly true. Trump's problem is even his more intelligent ideas lack depth. They would also, if attempted, lead to his assassination.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/18/huffpo-goes-haywire-against-russia-for-hillary/
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U.S. is very concerned that Russia is using bases in Iran to bomb Jihadists in Syria. Gee! You'ld think the US would want Russia to be bombing Jihadists. But no. It's quite the contrary. The Jihadists, like ISIS, have been US tools to fight Syria for the U.S.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/18/growing-disquiet-in-washington-over-russian-iranian-actions-in-syria/
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This next guy could be the hottest thing ever to hit the Saturday irving press Faith Page.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/pastor-who-believes-gods-punishes-gays-their-sins-gets-punished-his
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And here's one that the irving press missed - even though it's about Canada.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/council-canadians/2015/07/tpp-leaks-show-canada-post-and-cbc-trade#at_pco=sm
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And a useful reminder that things are seldom what they seem....

http://www.voltairenet.org/article192992.html
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The blog is going well, though most of its following is all over the world rather than here in New Brunswick. Several months ago, it exploded with the sudden appearance of a large, U.S. audience - bigger than all the others put together. Then there was an even bigger Russian audience that appeared quite suddenly, remained steady for two months, then disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared. The U.S. audience remains high and consistent.

However, I am running into a problem.

This blog takes up most of my day. I have also committed myself to an autobiography for my children. But it's very slow going because of the time I give to the blog. I'm beginning to feel the need of a regular time for the autobiography. So I may, somewhat, reduce the number of days devoted to the blog.

5 comments:

I agree with the article by Michael Moore, I was thinking that by the end of August, Trump would have a news conference saying that he was not continuing because the system was rigged beyond his expectations.

Michael Moore doesn't know what he's talking about. For example, the DNC wrote a speech for the Khan patriarch to deliver at the convention. This is evident in the main thrust of attack: it's un-American to ban Muslims, build a Mexican wall, AND oppose free trade. Only DNC weasels would think to throw that one in.

Trump's "attack" was: a) to rightly point out the DNC wrote the speech; and b) obliquely question the American values of the Khan family who had his wife up on stage but didn't deliver a single line.

Then the establishment media went hysterical which they do on a daily basis. (His anti-globalization rants as shocking to neocons as his mocking of a disabled reporter to PC pearl clutchers.)

Is Trump throwing the election by raising questions about the attack on him from a "gold star" family, evidently used by the DNC as a political human shield? That makes no sense. He's just defending himself.

When Trump said the election could be rigged, he was referencing the DNC rigging the primaries and stories about how easily electronic voting machines can be hacked. The media went hysterical. But his message to the people: the system/establishment can't be trusted.

Trump is trying to break the media. He keeps setting off the car alarm to expose flagrant bias, corruption and outright campaigning for Hill. He's trying to get people to tune out the establishment media and build an anti-PC revolution founded on grassroots social-media.

With 80 days left in the election, how many more times can the media cry wolf before the people grow weary of them? Don't be surprised if Trump leads a 'common sense' revolution all the way to the White House.

Shocking how they used that Syrian boy who later died. I guess it wouldn't look sexy enough if he were on a stretcher. When first looking upon the picture I wondered what in the hell was going on.

It seems they are trying to reignite the political firestorm caused by the picture of the dead Syrian boys washed up on shore with a manufactured picture. But instead of drumming up humanitarian aid, they want to make a case for war. (This is painfully obvious in the subtext of the NYT piece.)

Is the establishment in it to make Syria a better place, or drum up business for the military industrial complex?

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About Me

born into poverty in Montreal. (1933 was a bad year to be born.) Kicked out of school in grade 11. Became factory hand, office boy.
Did a general BA, mostly at night at Sir George Williams University, and partly while a youth worker for YMCA, camps, etc. Then teacher training at McGill.
Taught gradea 7 to 11 for six years. Loved it.
Quit to do MA at Acadia, then PhD (History) at Queen's.
Taught history three years at UPEI, then some 35 years at Concordia U in Montreal.
Loved the teaching. Thought the profs had more pompous and useless asses among then than is really desirable outside a zoo.
work experience:
factory, office,social group work, office,camp director, teacher.
Radio - c. 3000 broadcasts, mostly current events.
TV - many hundred appearances, mostly commentaries.
Film - some writing, advising, voice-overs.
Writing - no count, some hundreds. Some academic, but mostly for popular market, and ranging from short stories to stories to newspaper and magazine columns to history books.
professional speaker - close to 2000.
Awards for the above? yep